THE cost arbitrage and English speaking skills offered by India have made it an attractive destination for South Korea's largest IT service provider, LG CNS. The company on Tuesday launched here its wholly owned subsidiary, LG CNS Global, with an initial investment of $2 million.

The Indian centre would focus on providing product reengineering, system integration, application development, system management and enterprise services to both LG and non-LG customers in the overseas markets.

Mr Byung-Chul Jung, President & CEO, LG CNS Co Ltd, said the Indian subsidiary is expected to contribute $40 million in revenues by 2009. While the headcount is currently at 130 people, the company expects to increase this to 800 over the coming years.

"Korea is five times higher than India in terms of salary, so there is a cost advantage here. Besides, we expect LG CNS Global to provide IT services to the US and Europe market and later we expect to look at the domestic market also for business," Mr Jung said.

LG CNS is the IT services arm of the LG Group and in India the company already has LG Soft. While LG Soft India focuses on the embedded space, LG CNS Global would provide solutions on the enterprise side as also work on new technologies such as RFID (radio frequency identification) and mobile computing later, he added.

LG CNS is a $1.4-billion company now with 54 per cent of its business generated from non-LG clients. In India, the subsidiary is expected to cater to the IT requirements of LG Electronics India, Mr Jung said..